On June 11, 2026, we launched something at Dangerous Things that has been a long time coming: a practical payment implant. The announcement opened with the appropriate level of hedged glee: "If you've been waiting for Dangerous Things to come up with a solution to the payment implant problem, your wait may finally be over."
Why did that take until 2026? Because the payment industry wants nothing to do with implants. As I put it in the launch post, "payment networks simply don't want to risk their stock price dropping even half a percent due to any controversy over payment services being linked to implants." When issuers did try ("Sparda Bank was one such issuer, and they even offered customers implants!"), their partner payment network shut the program down. Earlier conversion approaches had their own problems: payment instruments expire, which for an implant means removal and replacement, and banks canceled services with little warning.
The new approach converts an Apex Ring into an implant: the Apex chip is extracted from the ring, fitted with an antenna, and encapsulated for biocompatibility. It comes in three form factors: Narrow (Flex), Module, and Spectrum. The payment part rides on tokenization: open an account with a supported card issuer, then use the Fidesmo app and the Fidesmo Pay service to tokenize your card onto the implant. Because the card is tokenized rather than burned in, it can be updated without replacing the device. That deals with the expiry problem. Issuer support is broadest in the EU through Fidesmo's network; in the U.S., Ether.fi is the current workaround.
Twenty-one years after my first implant opened a door, an implant of ours can buy lunch. As the release notes on the video put it: "Finally, a practical payment implant solution!"